SIOP Model: Comprehensible Input

and Strategies
Sr. Fides Nijimbere
&
Matthew Criscione
 Objectives
Students will be able to:
1. Recall the features of SIOP model comprehensible input.
2. Apply the various types of SIOP model strategies.
 SIOP Model Definition

SIOP= Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol

SIOP is used by researchers to measure teacher implementation of the
Sheltered Instruction (SI ).
 Comprehensible Input
❖ Requires making the message understandable for students.
❖ Helps English learners understand what the teacher says.
❖ Achieved when the teacher pays attention to ELs needs.
❖ Involves a conscious effort to make the lesson understandable.
❖ Needs appropriate speech coupled with techniques to make the content
clear.
 Comprehensible Input
❖ Requires teachers to speak more slowly, in a natural way.
❖ Needs more repetition.
❖ Effective SIOP teachers know that acquiring new language takes time.
 Speech Appropriate
❖ Use pauses.
❖ Enunciate clearly while speaking.
❖ SIOP teachers:

 carefully monitor the ELs’ vocabulary and sentence structure, especially at the
beginning level of English proficiency.
➢ use simple sentence structures meaning subject- verb- object
➢ reduce or eliminate embedded clauses

❖ Paraphrasing and repetition are useful practices to enhance

understanding.
 Clear Explanation of Academic Tasks
❖ Require giving clear instructions for assignments and activities.
❖ Have other students model the steps of the assignment for the class to
help those who have problems.
❖ Have instructions presented in a step-by-step manner.
❖ Have oral comprehensible directions always accompanied by written
ones to refer to late.
❖ It is difficult for students to remember oral directions.
❖ Do not talk too fast.
❖ Come closer to the ELs desk and explain stuff in order.
 Clear Explanation of Academic Tasks
❖ Practice what has been clearly explained.

❖ For intermediate and advanced speakers, focus lessons:

 on voice,
➢ on word choice,
➢ on complete sentence using adjectives or forming a question.

❖ Make sure that students know what to do.

➢ It contributes to the success of the lesson.
➢ It enhances learning.
Variety of Techniques Used
● Modeling
● Visuals
● Hands-on activities
● Demonstrations
● Gestures
● Body language
 Variety of Techniques Making Content Concepts Clear

❖ Use gestures and body language.

❖ Use pictures and object to accompany speech.

➢ Example: in learning three forms of water,
 hold a glass of water, an ice cube, and
 show a picture of a steaming cup of coffee.

❖ Provide repeated exposures to words, concepts, and skills.

➢ Els need repetition, but the best way is
 to introduce terms well in advance (pre-exposure),
 to review the material minutes after students have learned it,
 to allow the students to revise information hours, days or weeks to revisit the learning.
 Variety of Techniques Making Content Concepts Clear

❖Be succinct ( brief) especially for teenagers.

➢ Their frontal lobes may not store many ideas.
➢ Their amount of input should be limited.
➢ Teenagers need concrete, realistic models.
• They benefit from having an opportunity to think through explanations in
discussions.

❖ Use graphic organizers effectively.

➢GOs take the information, vocabulary and

➢ Make it more understandable by showing the key points graphically;
➢ It can capture a teacher's confusing words.
Example of Learning Definition Graphic
Organizers

Water is a liquid that can be served to drink.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTnHonxao
70
 Three Types of Learning Strategies
❖ First, metacognitive strategies are characterized
➢ by matching thinking and problem-solving to particular learning,
➢ By clarifying purposes for learning,
➢ By monitoring one’s own comprehension through self-questioning.

❖ Metacognition implies:
➢ Awareness
➢ Reflection
➢ Interaction

❖ Strategies are used in an integrated, interrelated and recursive

(repetitious) manner.
 Three Types of Learning Strategies
❖ Second, cognitive strategies:
➢ Help students organize the information expected to learn via self-regulated
learning;
➢ Are used by learners when applying a specific technique to a learning task.

❖ Examples of cognitive strategies used by the learners:

➢ Previewing a story before to reading
➢ Establishing a purpose for reading
➢ Making connections between personal experiences and what is happening in a
story
➢ Taking notes during the lecture
➢ Completing a graphic organizer
➢ Creating a semantic map
 Three Types of Learning Strategies
❖ Third, socio-affective strategies:
➢ Enhanced within people interaction to clarify a confusing point,
➢ Enhanced when participating in a group discussion,
➢ Enhanced when cooperating each other to solve a problem.
 Scaffolding Techniques Consistently
● Term used by Vygotsky (1978)
● Notion of the Zone of Proximal Development

 Difference between what the children can do without help and what
they accomplish with the experienced individual

● Two types of scaffolding:

 Verbal scaffolding
 Procedural scaffolding
 Scaffolding Techniques
● Verbal scaffolding includes:

○ Paraphrasing
○ Using “think-aloud”
○ Reinforcing contextual definitions
○ Providing correct pronunciation by repeating students' phrases
○ Slowing speech and increasing pauses
 Scaffolding Techniques
● Procedural scaffolding:

○ Using an unistructural framework

■ explicit teaching, modeling, practice with others

○ One-on-one teaching
○ Small group instruction with another more experienced student
○ Partnering students for reading activities
 Use of Variety of Questions
 Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) - Students are able to become
strategic when it comes to determining the levels of questions they are
asked.
 Student recognizes a literal level question. Answer is found in book.
 Student recognizes an inferential question. They have to think about the
answer.
 Questioning the Author (QtA) - Students read a text closely and
formulate questions they would ask the author themselves concerning
certain meanings or themes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhYI3w5I0EA
Activity
 Sources
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2008). Making content
comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP Model. New York: Pearson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTnHonxao70

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhYI3w5I0EA